Electricity
When it came to electricity we essentially had two different houses to deal with. We had the old section which needed to have the old wire removed and the new installed, all without destroying the plaster. The 'new' part of the house needed to be entirely wired and a new electrical box needed to be put in. Our electrical crew made up of a father and son team, with a two extra guys to help considering the size of the project. Two guys worked on the older part, while the other two did the new wiring. By the time they finished, the other two were only half way down the old section. We had to remove the baseboards in the downstairs section so they could cut into the wall and fish up some wires. We were also in the process of redoing the ceiling in one section of the old house so they were able to get the new wiring upstairs as well without damaging any of the walls. It was a long process and it took many, many months to finish, but eventually we had a fully upgraded electrical system.
Plumbing
The plumbing problems began a week before we were expecting the plumber to arrive to start. It turned out our plumber couldn't do the job as he had ended up in jail. We frantically called around to all the plumbers we could find, but none were available. We were feeling quite down on ourselves when my good friend Tanya gave me a call. She said one of her fathers very good friends was a retired plumber and if the job wasn't too overwhelming he would consider coming our of retirement to help us. Well he came, he saw and he agreed to do the job. He brought along another retired plumber to help and we were happy to soon see water pipes going into place. It took a while and there was mishap after mishap (which I will got into greater detail later), but eventually the plumbing was all finished.
Heating
The heating system took a long time to install, not because of the actually work load, but because it took us forever to find a installer that wasn't going to rob us blind. We had no idea how expensive a new heating system would be and were quite shocked when the first quote came back so high. We did need to install a new electric furnace, an all new venting system, a heat pump and an air exchanger, but the price given was way too high for our budget. We got a second and a third quote and again the price was too high. We were beginning to think we would have to break the bank to get the job done. Then my mom suggested a guy who did the heating system at the hospital where she worked. He came and asked us straight up how much we could afford and what needed to be done. After a tour of the house he offered us the full package for a great deal. It was a few hundred under budget. We said signed on the dotted line and two weeks later our house was fully set up with a new heating system.
Insulation
The insulation had already been sprayed on the outside walls of the old part of the house. However they needed to wait until all the electricity, heating and plumbing was finished before they could move in to spray the inside walls. Once all the above was finished the crew came in with their space like suits and sprayed out walls with an assortment of colours......walls of pink, purple and yellow greeted us the next time we walked through the house. We also had the attack of both sections of the house filled with cellulose. A messy but necessary job.
This picture pretty much sums up the work done over the next few months in our home. While we weren't in for Christmas, the gift of having a warm, insulated house with new electrical and plumbing was good enough for us.
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